The Game
by Rinkashi Namiki
Summary: Everyone has something they would rather not let the world know.
1. Nothing Else Matters

A/N: As of 28 December 2011, every chapter has been revised. Please take the time to read over the old chapters again before reading the newest chapter.  
Also, please drop me a little review telling me what you liked or didn't like. It really does mean a lot to me.

* * *

The raven-haired girl sat at her desk folding kusudama and smoking a cigarette.

_Fold, fold, puff. Fold, puff. Weave, puff. _

Her entire family smoked. Each of them pretended _not _to when they were around each other. They would sit at the table full of nervous laughter and always skirt around the topic of taboo: nicotine. After mealtime and visiting each other they would disappear to their smoking havens.

Grandpa relaxed in the far back of the storeroom at a desk cramped with ancient artifacts, while the smoke swirled and congealed in the light emanating from a dim lamp.

Mother would sit on the pantry floor with her back to the shelves.

Sota hid in the shrine and nervously puffed away.

Kagome went to the only room that was hers alone: her bedroom.

At the next meal, each had their excuse for being gone. Grandpa was cataloguing the family's artifacts. Mother was looking for something needed for a recipe. Sota was sweeping the always-immaculate shrine. Kagome was doing her schoolwork. These were the patterns- until now. Kagome spent all of her time locked in her room since she'd come back –permanently- from the past.

* * *

Everyone- especially Inuyasha- had broken the last thread holding Kagome in the past. She did not stomp her feet and yell at Inuysha. She did not subjugate him to the Earth's core. She did not confide in Sango, nor did she call Miroku a lecher. Kagome simply sighed heavily with her hands massaging her temples while muttering that she had to go home. And she turned and walked to the bone-eater's well.

Kagome simply couldn't bare seeing Miroku and Sango being sickly sweet together while she was being used as she was. Kagome couldn't stand the building-up of false promises and secretly whispered sweet-nothings and heretical touches when no one was looking and when Kikyo wasn't available.


	2. Unless

_One week after leaving:_

Kagome stood up with her finished origami ornament and stretched her tense shoulders.

_Time for a cigarette_.

Inhaling, she studied her yellowed nails and decided they needed painting if she were to continue to hide her habit from the others. Her hand faltered as she reached for a bottle- she had no intention of going back, so why was she concerned?

Shrugging, Kagome picked up a polish at random.. red. She _hated _red. Red reminded her of InuYasha. Red reminded her of blood and lost sleep. Of daemons and heartache- Mostly of heartache. Kagome sighed and put out the cigarette as she sat down to paint her nails red anyway.

_One month after leaving:_

Kagome growled at her grandfather as she dusted the shrine. He'd tricked her into wearing miko garb and maintaining the shrine because she "_wasn't constantly in the past anymore"_ and "_securing a real job seemed impossible"_ due to her dropping out of school. She growled again and said 'sit' under her breath just _hoping_ it would reach InuYahsa in the past. It really was his fault that she dropped out of school years ago.

Finishing her shrine duties, she sought out her grandfather for the next list of chores only to learn that he had 'spiritul' training in store for her. She grumbled 'sit' again and reluctantly listened to her grandfather's instruction. Much to her grandfather's delight and to her dismay, Kagome had discovered she'd had a much more potent spiritual talent than she'd previously thought. Some wicked little piece of her brain hoped that it meant Kikyo had finally passed on before Kagome slammed it down. Kikyo was hundreds of years in the past. Of course she'd passed on.

_Five months after leaving:_

Kagome awoke, just as she had for months now, and dressed in the silence of the early morning. Now that she didn't have **Kikyo **to be mistaken for- or the stray dog to chide her for dressing how she wanted-, she felt free to wear the garb of a Miko. She was actually beginning to honestly prefer it over 'modern' clothing and often would wear it out to the grocery store or anywhere else in town that she needed- or wanted- to go.

..

Kagome's eyebrow twitched- the nitwit was back _again_ to spy on her. How was she supposed to enjoy the present if the past literally kept haunting her? Her hands stilled their rhythmic sweeping of the shrine as a plan began to form in her mind. She'd simply wait until the stray wandered off and erect a barrier to keep him- or anything else- back where it belonged. In the past.

Smiling smugly, Kagome sealed off the bone-eaters' well. There would be no strays coming to watch her secretively. Ohh, if only InuYasha had known that Kagome could always sense him watching her... he'd be so embarrassed. Giggling at the mental image, Kagome proudly finished the final touches on her seal...

..

..

InuYasha panicked when he didn't time travel to Kagome's home. His mind raced with horrible images and scenarios of Kagome being helpless as he sprinted to Kaede for a solution. Miroku watched the inu leave and walked over to the well to see what had made InuYasha run off... and was shocked to feel nothing more than a normal, dried up well. Perplexed, Miroku walked back to Kaede's hut, knowing that the only way Kagome would ever come back was if she wanted to... and considering her actions when she left, it could be a long wait.

Turning toward the village path, Miroku couldn't help but chuckle as he watched the inu being subjugated...

_"Perhaps not such a long wait, after all."_


	3. Back Again

_Eighteen months after leaving:_

"Kagome, are you sure about this?"

Kagome paused for a brief moment, thinking how to best answer her mother.

Of course she wasn't sure about any of this. She didn't even know if her "once upon a time" friends were still alive or if they'd managed to beat Naraku in her absence.

Tugging at her lip, Kagome simply told her mother how she felt.

"Mom, of course I'm not sure… but I can't just ignore the past forever. At the very least I need to make the shikon jewel whole again."

Before waiting for her mother to respond, Kagome unsealed the well and jumped through. The familiar and distant magic reached to her and through her, transporting her to a place she realized she missed in many small ways- the main one being the crisp scent of air untarnished by chemicals and factories.

With nothing more than her bow & arrows and a pouch of tobacco and pipe, Kagome climbed up and out of the bone eater's well and rested on its ledge for a brief smoke. Her nerves were already tense as she felt the past's lost magic come to her and swirl about her as if it were errant smoke. When she was nearly done with the tobacco in her pipe, Kagome felt the presences of her old group drawing closer. Emptying her pipe, she stood up and smoothed the wrinkles from her miko hakama and began to walk away from the well and her "once upon a time" friends. Kagome would save confrontation for later… at the moment, she wanted to fell the beast that she sensed holding a shikon shard.

"I SWEAR! I sensed her here just a moment ago! See! It still smells like her! I can.. I swear.. she.. she has to.." InuYasha sunk to the ground in saddened defeat.

Sango reached out to InuYasha and tried to console him with her words.

"We all miss her, InuYasha… don't feel badly. Just because your nose fooled you.. again.. doesn't mean.. Well, I know she will come back. Kagome felt so strongly about us.. She can't just forget about us forever."

Sango rested a hand on InuYasha's shoulder, trying to comfort him. He reached up and held her hand in place, appreciating that Sango was trying her best.

Without warning, the sound of a daemon's guttural growl and trees cracking could be heard in the distance. Alarmed, the group stood and made haste towards the origin of the noises fearing that a hapless villager had been caught in a daemon's path.

Kagome smirked as she loosed another arrow toward the giant. Doubly enchanted with a talisman and her energy, the daemon would have little hope to survive a second shot. Kagome paused to muse over how much stronger she was now- she was no longer a damsel to be constantly saved. Hearing the arrow hit its' mark, Kagome went to the dying daemon to forcibly extract the jewel fragment. Before she could, however, the beast summoned up the last of its strength and made a grab for her fragile human body, only to be stopped by a wearisome looking InuYasha. He looked towards Kagome, and looked through her as if she weren't real at all before ending the pitiful daemon's life.


	4. Nani?

A/N: Onna= woman

Also, please leave a review. I would greatly appreciate it seeing as this story seems to be the most popular of my works.

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InuYasha turned from Kikyo, wishing that she did not resemble Kagome so much. Their likeness pulled at his heart, reminding him of his failures. After ending the daemon's life, he slung the Tetsusaiga over his shoulder and spoke with what little malice he could muster, "You're getting weaker, Kikyo. Go back to the hellhole you crawled from."

His piece being said, InuYasha started to walk towards Miroku and Sango.

Closing her eyes in annoyance, Kagome inhaled as she mentally counted down from ten.

_tenTHAT… nineFREAKIN'… eightBAKA… sevenINU…Si!_

" HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU? IT'S KAGOME! KA! GO! ME!"

Surprised birds flew hurriedly away as Kagome's outburst echoed and InuYasha's step faltered. Slowly, hoping against hope, the inu turned, a look of disbelief on his face. Sango, being closer, stopped walking completely and sunk to her knees. Miroku slowed his pace and took Kagome's appearance in before coming to a stop next to Sango. Resting his free hand on Sango's shoulder, Miroku watched InuYasha and Kagome's reunion.

InuYasha turned around fully and scanned the onna's features with guarded enthusiasm. He would not put it past Kikyo to pull such a prank- but no… it was _his_ Kagome! InuYasha dropped the Tetsusaiga at the same instant that he sprinted towards Kagome. He collided with her as sword hit ground. After almost knocking Kagome down, InuYasha engulfed her in a chest-crushing hug with silent tears pricking the corners of his eyes. The inu buried his face in her hair and inhaled all of her glorious scent to calm his beating heart. Slowly, carefully, as if her being would shatter, InuYasha placed a clawed hand on her face. He rubbed at her porcelain cheek with his calloused thumb, letting each of his senses slowly devour her. He focused on Kagome's doe eyes- burning them into his memory- as he moved his face closer to hers. With their lips a hair apart, InuYasha breathed her name as his eyes shut to close the final gap between them.

Kagome stood rigid as the dog demon crushed her in a hug and smelled at her hair. She was perplexed, confused, lost.. Was this the same man that had broken the last straw for her over a year ago? …the same one that used her and threw her away time and again for her shell… her ghost… her predecessor? InuYasha barely whispered her name before he kissed full force with longing and desperation. Overwhelmed, Kagome made the motions of reciprocating before something in her mind started to scream.

_Wrong! This is all wrong! InuYasha…_

"Inu… Yasha…" Kagome broke contact just long enough to whimper his name before he devoured her lips once again. Kagome realized that she no longer felt anything towards InuYasha. Her mind raced.

_Why don't I feel anything?_

_What's wrong with me! I should be so happy... but I feel blank… I have to… I have to..!_

Kagome half cried, half whispered, "InuYasha… sit." Time slowed as she watched the inu descend to the ground at her feet.

Devotion wiped from his face, InuYasha looked at Kagome with fear in his eyes just before he hit the ground. Tears coursing down her face, Kagome turned and sprinted away- to anywhere but where she had felt everything and nothing. Tears stole her vision as she ran blindly, narrowly evading tree trunks. She made it to a clearing and opened her eyes, noticing the well. Her eyes widened and the tears ran faster as she clumsily tried to climb over the ledge.

_Coming here was a mistake. I can't take thi-_

"And to think this one is leaving already. What did the stray do this time? Tell me, miko-onna." Sesshoumaru shot his hand out and tilted Kagome's chin upward, searching her eyes as if they were telling him a dark secret.

Kagome's tears stopped the instant Sesshoumaru's hand touched her face with a surprisingly gentle force. Her eyes flickered closed as she relished how very warm and soft his hand felt on her face. A bitter twitch ran between hand and face as Kagome opened her eyes. She stood quickly- but it was too late. Her eyes shifted closed as Kagome felt her body fall before everything disappeared.

"Sleep." Sesshoumaru softly spoke as he nimbly caught Kagome's unconscious form, leaning her against his useless shoulder while supporting her lithe frame from her bottom with his remaining arm. Calling upon a daemon, Sesshoumaru whisked Kagome away from what pained her the most.

_Rest miko. You cannot return home- I need your abilities to gather the remaining shards. Once I have my wish… _


	5. EEYEH? What's going on!

A/N: Yes, I still exist. I apologize for not updating in so long. I hope this chapter is penance enough for my prolonged absence. Please take a moment to note that I'm obviously not writing in cannon, therefore some elements will veritably be somewhat off-kilter.

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P.S.: As of 28 December 2011, every chapter has been revised. Please take the time to read over the old chapters again before reading the newest chapter.  
Also, please drop me a little review telling me what you liked or didn't like. It really does mean a lot to me.

* * *

Kagome woke to the sound of water sloshing, as if Sota was taking an extra noisy bath. She yawned, absently wondering what time it was, and rolled over to get out of her bed. She froze mid-motion. She wasn't in her bed. In fact, she didn't know where she was. Judging by scent alone, Kagome knew she had to be in the past. The present never smelled as sweet and crisp. The white-and-red kimono that served as a blanket confirmed it. She would have assumed that Koga had kidnapped her… again.. but it didn't smell right to her. Koga smelled strongly of the woods.. and, strangely enough, baby's breath flowers…

Kagome tried to remember what had happened. The last thing she remembered was Inu Yasha trying to.. to...

…and she had subjugated him and ran. Kagome calmly cleared her throat as she sat up, the carefully placed kimono falling away from her shoulders. She patted her neck for the small leather pouch that contained her pieces of the shikon jewel and sighed in relief. Wherever she was and whoever had taken her either didn't know or was too stupid to take the jewel fragments from her. Next, Kagome patted at the sleeves of her miko garb looking for her tobacco and pipe. It wasn't there. In a slight panic, Kagome started searching the area around her.

Awoken from a light sleep, Sesshoumaru blearily turned toward the origin of the sound of silk swishing against silk, momentarily forgetting that Rin would be off with Jaken still. From his perch above what was normally Rin's favourite place to sleep, he dropped his hand down to pat her head and calm her, as he normally did, so that she could sleep more restfully.

Instead of the tousled, feathery hair Sesshoumaru expected, his hand skimmed across an expanse of back and he blushed. What he had felt definitely did not belong to Rin. The angry shout confirmed it.

"HEY, MISTER. WATCH…what you're…" Kagome trailed off as she remembered that Sesshoumaru had taken her from the bone-eater's well, and it was her turn to blush.

They both spoke at the same time.  
"Onna, this one-"

"For a moment I-"

Sesshoumaru paused, letting the Onna speak. Kagome turned her face down to hide her blush and spoke more softly.

"I forgot where I was. I thought you were Miroku, being a lecher as always." Kagome folded her hands into her lap, nervously twisting her fingers.

Sesshoumaru couldn't help but chuckle silently. Was this how the others treated the miko-onna? No wonder she'd left them in the dust. Clearing his throat, Sesshoumaru felt the need to defend his actions.

"This one is used to Rin sleeping below him. She never sleeps well, so this one will soothe her by petting her hair."

Kagome looked up to where Sesshoumaru was laying- a shelf of sorts, built into the wall a few feet above where she had been sleeping moments before- and was hit with a wave of bewilderment. Sesshoumaru… actually cared for Rin? Not just kept her around and living... but actually cared if Rin was sleeping well and everything? A momentary sense of motherly pride welled up in her for Sesshoumaru's actions.

The odd sensation of being stared at made Sesshoumaru lean over the edge of his bedding to peer at Kagome and the odd expression she wore. Recalling the last words exchanged, he asked,

"Is it odd that this one would let Rin sleep so near him?"

Kagome looked up to answer Sesshoumaru, but her reply was lost in her throat as laughter bubbled up- Sesshoumaru's normally impeccable hair was sleep-worn and ratted worse than InuYasha's hair normally was. His eyes were horribly squinted, distorting his markings. Overall, Kagome could tell that Sesshoumaru was not a graceful sleeper, nor was he a 'morning person'. Sesshoumaru's eyebrow twitched as he stood up and walked out of Kagome's line of sight.

Kagome was thrown off of her laughing at Sesshoumaru's disappearance. Her curiosity getting the better of her, she stood and peeked up at where Sesshoumaru had been laying to discover that it was not really a shelf at all- it was an entire room. Kagome looked around the bare room, noting Sesshoumaru's armour and trappings sitting alone in a far corner and a large mural of what she assumed was supposed to be InuYasha and Seshoumaru's father. Movement behind her made her duck back down sheepishly, feeling like a child caught with her hand in a cookie jar.

Sesshoumaru was walking down a set of stairs to the right of her, dressed in a plain white kimono. His hair was thrown over his useless shoulder as he methodically brushed the remnants of sleep away while he walked about the room, stopping to yawn occasionally. Whipping his hair onto the opposite shoulder, Sesshoumaru turned from her and started to walk into another room, his kimono slipping off of his useless shoulder to reveal milky skin and then a mangled, scarred stump where his arm should have been.

Seeing Sesshoumaru in this new, odd light was drastically different from their first encounter. Kagome remembered how terrified she was of Sesshoumaru and how absolutely violent he seemed- but the pieces of the puzzle didn't seem to match up for her. How could this be the same man- pardon, demon- that had been hell bent on the death of InuYasha and herself those years ago? Seeing Sesshoumaru as she just had gave her a horrible pang of guilt and made her angry at InuYasha for destroying his brother's arm so mercilessly.

Kagome stood to follow Sesshoumaru. She just _had_ to learn more about the supposedly hateful elder brother if anything was going to make sense to her. What was next? Naraku was really just a sweet guy that liked kittens too much? Kagome snorted at herself. As if.


End file.
